Pursuing her dream

Tuesday

Mar 16, 2010 at 12:01 AMMar 16, 2010 at 4:17 PM

Weymouth ceramics business provides healing in more ways than one.

Patriot Ledger staff

Valerie DeVincentis was eagerly devising plans for her new ceramics business, excited after decades of working a desk job to tap her creative side and work with her hands. However, her plans were derailed for more than a year after an accident nearly severed her left hand.

But DeVincentis was determined to pursue her dream – and it was her return to work with ceramics that ultimately helped her hand heal.

“When you rely on yourself to get something done, it makes you stronger,” she said. “I wanted to prove to myself that I could make the ceramics business work. I’m proud that I’ve been able to do that.”

DeVincentis, 43, is making a name for herself, largely in her hometown of Weymouth, with her business Glazey Days Ceramics. She makes ceramic pieces and works with both children and adults to create everything from fun to functional ceramics for their homes.

It wasn’t long ago that DeVincentis wondered whether she would ever again be able to handle a ceramic mold. In late 2006, DeVincentis was told she would be laid off the following spring as a network specialist for a finance company in Boston. The job had always worked well for the family; for 12 years, DeVincentis worked a graveyard shift so she and her husband could trade off watching their four daughters, who are now ages 8 to 14.

While DeVincentis was finishing her last few months at the finance company, she saw a do-it-yourself show about ceramic art and was immediately intrigued. She bought a kiln, some plaster and molds and taught herself how to make ceramics. She provided free ceramics classes at her daughter’s school to gain some experience in working with children.

“I loved it. Through trial and error, I was getting the hang of it, and I was getting confident,” she said. “I had this dream of working with children.”

DeVincentis began looking around for a store she could rent and started getting excited about possibly owning a ceramics business. In February 2007, two months before she was due to leave her job in Boston, DeVincentis came home from a long night’s work to complaints from her daughters that the family’s fishbowl looked dirty.

After cleaning and refilling the fish bowl, which was actually an oversized vase, DeVincentis accidentally knocked the bowl against the side of the sink, and the glass shattered. Her left hand, which was cradling the bowl, was nearly severed at the wrist by a large V-shaped piece of glass. An artery, a nerve and all the tendons were cut.

“It happened in a flash. I didn’t have time to think. I called out to my husband and I was staring down at my wrist. I was frozen. My husband started freaking out, and it snapped me out of it and made me realize how hurt I really was,” she said. “That’s when I realized I was in real serious trouble.”

Valerie’s husband, Jim DeVincentis, instructed their daughter Antonia, who was 10 at the time, to call 911 while he laid Valerie on the floor and grabbed a towel that he wrapped tightly around her arm. He had to use both of his hands to hold her wrist together and apply enough pressure to slow down the bleeding.

“They estimated I lost two to three pints of blood,” she said. “I was thinking, ‘I could die here.’ I was really thankful my husband was there because if he wasn’t there, I might have just kept looking at (the wound).”

DeVincentis underwent eight hours of surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital to reattach her hand. Doctors warned her that she may never regain much function in her left hand.

“The prognosis was not good,” she said. “They were pretty much saying that I might not have very much control of my hand. It was too soon to say, but a very small percentage regain full function. It was devastating. I thought I would never be able to do the ceramics.”

After six months of occupational therapy, her thumb still wouldn’t work and her hand had no flexibility. She needed help from her husband and daughters with all kinds of simple tasks – from opening jars to taking dishes out of the oven.

A year after the accident, DeVincentis found a hand surgeon who removed a tendon from another finger and placed it in her thumb, allowing her thumb to work. She had better hand function, but not much strength. Her grip was weaker than a baby’s. Yet four months after the surgery, a determined DeVincentis started working with ceramics again, starting with 3-inch molds. It turned out that the process of mixing the liquid clay, pouring it into molds and securing thick rubber bands tightly around the molds provided some of the best hand therapy she could get, and she felt her hand get stronger.

“I just made up my mind I wasn’t going to give up ceramics,” she said. “I decided I was going to be my own therapist and I was going to make my hand stronger and get back full function. I realized, ‘It’s me or it’s no one, right?’ I made bigger and bigger pieces to build up my strength. And it worked.”

DeVincentis started out by offering free “in-house field trips” at Weymouth elementary schools. She would bring her supplies and allow the children to paint their pieces. Word got around about her work, and she was later offered her first paid ceramics job teaching kids in an after-school enrichment program at the Frederick C. Murphy School in Weymouth. She formulated lesson plans and activities for the five-week program, and it turned out to be a hit.

“She pours her heart into the ceramics, and the kids love it,” said Carlyn Parker, president of the Murphy School Parent Council, who has hired DeVincentis for the enrichment program three years in a row. “It’s one of the most popular programs. We had more kids who wanted to do the class than we could allow last time.”

Other work would follow. She has worked with Girl Scout troops and other groups in the home studio in her basement; she has taught 300 students – from kindergarten to eighth grade – at the Sacred Heart Elementary School in Weymouth; and she has taught classes through the Weymouth Recreation Department. She has also hosted classes for adults and is soon planning to teach at an assisted living facility in Braintree.

Diane LaFrancis, 40, of Braintree is impressed with DeVincentis’ setup – and LaFrancis’ 11-year-old daughter Olivia loves painting her ceramics. LaFrancis brought Olivia and a couple of her friends to the Glazey Days studio during the February break – and she also had DeVincentis create a ceramic plaque out of her 6-week-old daughter’s footprint.

“It’s something we’ll have forever,” LaFrancis said. “I like that she provides functional things, like a mug with your child’s handprint.”

Her left hand is not completely back to normal; she feels a constant tingling sensation. But with all she went through, she almost can’t believe she has been able to pursue her passion.

“I have a passion for this work, and part of that passion is creating with people. People will often say to me, ‘I can’t paint that,’ and I tell them, ‘Oh yes, you can,’” she said. “I had to build a lot of confidence in myself to do this, and now I like building confidence in other people.”